Randi Zuckerberg teaches kids good tech habits with new show Dot.

Digital lifestyle mogul partnered with CBC to adapt children's book

Some parents are happy if their kids can play connect the dots. Randi Zuckerberg, however, is hoping kids will connect to her new show, Dot.

Airing Tuesdays and Thursdays on CBC, the animated children’s program centres on a spunky and inquisitive girl who uses tech tools like tablets to enhance her adventures. It’s based on the 2013 children’s book Dot., which Zuckerberg wrote.

The digital lifestyle mogul, former Facebook executive and sister of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg spoke about Dot., getting more girls interested in tech and what drives her professionally.

Q: How did you come to work with CBC on this project? What were your ties to Canada?

A: When I first published the book Dot., I learned that it had become a Heather’s Picks in Canada (for Indigo). I wanted to understand what that meant, so I made Toronto a long stop on my book tour. I got to meet (Indigo’s founder, chair and CEO Heather Reisman) in person, and I was so thrilled about how the book was received in Canada that it made so much sense to partner with CBC when it came to broadcast.

Q: What inspired you to create the character of Dot?

A: Every single day I wake up and think about how to get more women interested in tech, entrepreneurship, building businesses. Media and pop culture is a really powerful place to reach girls and show that it’s exciting and cool and totally normal to be in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. I think we have a real opportunity to impact these young girls and steer them in a direction where they can be building the next great tech company.

A lot of the studies I read said that it was even by age seven, eight years old that we lose girls in STEM and that they’ve already learned — society has told them — that it’s not an area for girls and they’ve spent too much time in the pink aisle, in the toys section.

“Every single day I wake up and think about how to get more women interested in tech, entrepreneurship, building businesses.”

Q: Some people are wary about the effects technology has on kids — for example, becoming addicted to it. How do you respond to that?

A: We did strive to reach a balance in every episode, when it came to engaging in tech. The children in the show always know when to unplug and put the tech away. I feel like there are so many parents who are overwhelmed by tech, especially in their children’s lives, and it’s really easy to just go to a place of fear when it comes to tech. Where they’re thinking, “I need to restrict tech. I need to restrict screen time.”

In this show we were aiming to show the other side of the coin, which is that tech also opens up so many opportunities for creativity, for wonder, for exploration — if you use it in moderation, in balance.

Q: How long can you personally go without tech?

A: I don’t know if I’ve ever made it a week. I’ll pat myself on the back if I make it a few hours. But I love to just dive into a project creatively. I don’t know how anyone is able to be creative when you’re constantly distracted by emails and messages and Facebook chats. I couldn’t do half the things I do — reading over the scripts for Dot, getting ready for my radio show, anything — without that undivided time that’s distraction free. That’s something I would advocate for anyone in order to really be creative. You’ve got to put the phone away for a little bit.

“I don’t know how anyone is able to be creative when you’re constantly distracted by emails and messages and Facebook chats.”

Q: In the past you’ve talked about protecting kids from cyber-bullying. Do you deal with those type of online safety issues on Dot.?

A: Those are issues that I think about a lot. We really wanted to make sure for this show that everything the children do with tech is age appropriate. Dot is about age eight in the show, so you’ll never see her on social media. You’ll never see her browsing the Internet without an adult present.

We had consultants from Common Sense Media and several other experts looking at every script for the show to make sure we were covering tech in a way that was responsible for that age group.

Q: What drives you in your career?

A: I feel like I’m always striving for more. I think it just comes down to passion. I wake up every morning, like, I bound out of bed with enthusiasm for what I’m working on. I think that life is too short to not feel that way, especially with a show like Dot. Not only is it so much fun to work on, but I really believe that we’re making the world a better place by having a show like this in it, where young girls can feel inspired and energized to explore technology.